Ready or Not has finally made its way to Xbox Series X, bringing its intense, tactical SWAT-style gameplay from PC to console players. Developed by VOID Interactive, this gritty first-person shooter throws you into the role of an elite police unit tasked with handling high-risk situations from hostage rescues to bomb threats. 

Known for its grounded realism and unforgiving difficulty, Ready or Not doesn’t hold your hand, but how well does this hardcore experience translate to consoles, and does it hold up to the PC version? Let’s dive into the action and see if it’s worth answering the call. 

The console launch of Ready or Not comes with a solid foundation, and the missions that never quite feel the same, with enemies and objectives randomly spawning each time you load in. There are 18 intense missions with the base game, alongside two additional scenarios, “Fast Food” and “Apartments”, as a part of the free Los Sueños Stories DLC.

This updated release also introduces a new difficulty system, which now gives players more control over how realistic and chaotic the game can be. VOID Interactive continues to lean heavily into authenticity, working alongside law enforcement professionals to fine-tune everything from the game’s rules of engagement to its scoring system. 

In Ready or Not, players step into the boots of a SWAT officer in the Los Sueños Police Department, where there has been a dramatic surge in violent crimes that has thrown the city into chaos. As an elite response team, you are deployed to tackle high-risk situations. Unlike traditional shooters, Ready or Not prioritises precision, discipline and adherence to the rules of engagement. Success isn’t measured by body count, but the ability to safely de-escalate situations and apprehend suspects alive.

The civilians’ safety is paramount, and any reckless action, whether it be friendly fire or an accidental shot, can lead to harsh consequences, including mission failure. It emphasises tactical decision-making over trigger-happy gameplay, defining the core experience and separating Ready or Not from your typical run-and-gun formula we find in games. 

If you’re new to Ready or Not, it’s important to understand this isn’t your average first-person shooter. It’s a high-stakes tactical SWAT simulator that demands patience, planning and precision, with gameplay heavily focused on mechanics, immersing you in realistic law enforcement procedures.

Preparation is key before heading out on a mission in Ready or Not, which means you spend lots of time at the loadout station adjusting to each mission. Whether you are breaching a meth lab or clearing a hostage situation in a hotel, choosing the right weapons, armour, and tactical tools can mean the difference between success and failure.

You can equip yourself with a variety of gear, including breaching shotguns, door wedges, flashbangs, and non-lethal weapons like your taser, depending on the mission and its objectives. You’ll also find weapon customisation being a key role for your playstyle, you can adjust your firearms as needed with suppressors, scopes, foregrips, lasers or torches so you can go that stealthy or aggressive gameplay.

Once you’ve been deployed, your tablet becomes a necessary tool, enabling you to check out building layouts and stay updated with intel like the objectives. I found myself using this more and more on those trickier missions to see if I could get the flank on a suspect.

You must scan rooms before entry, peek or breach doors using tools like the under-door camera, and check for things like tripwires or bobby traps that can instantly end your mission. If you’re running solo, you control your AI teammates by issuing commands like stack up, mirror under the door, restrain suspect, or something as simple as move to cover. 

Teamwork is essential whether online or offline. Missions take place across a variety of gritty, realistic environments, occuring during both night and day time to mix things up, and it’s anything from hostage situations to active shooter threats at public venues, with each map presenting it’s on unique objectives like securing evidence, arresting armed suspects, or rescuing civillians.

Completing a mission isn’t enough either. You’re ranked anything from a “Soft” completion, which means you finished the missions but may have failed some key objectives or used excessive force, while a “Hard” or full completion demands non-lethal takedowns, thorough room clearing, evidence collection and minimal civilian casualties. 

There is a little bit of controversy with the console release, with the censorship that was implemented to meet the platform’s content guidelines. This included toned-down violence, altered mission content and the removal of some of the more provocative or morally complex scenarios that made the original PC version stand out from the rest. 

The core gameplay in Ready or Not is undeniably solid, offering a tense and tactical experience that rewards careful planning and quick reactions. Whether you’re breaching doors or clearing rooms, the mechanics feel tight and responsive.

However, the broken command wheel, something I’ll touch on more later, really held back the single-player experience for me. I often found myself avoiding its use altogether, instead pushing through objectives on my own to sidestep the frustration of using it.

On the flip side, multiplayer was a completely different story. With cross-play support across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5, running with a squad of up to 5 officers, communicating over voice chat made the experience far more enjoyable because it takes the command wheel out of the equation. It allowed the game’s tactical depth to shine without being bogged down by poor functioning features. 

The controls in Ready or Not are impressively user-friendly on the Xbox controller, making it easy for newcomers to jump straight into the action without feeling overwhelmed. That said, after playing on both Xbox and PC, I found the controls felt noticeably more fluid and responsive on PC, particularly when it came to precision aiming and quick actions like leaning.

One area that really stood out as needing improvement was the command wheel; it felt clunky, unintuitive, and at times, it didn’t respond as intended, making it really frustrating in high-stress situations. I also ran into some issues when trying to cuff suspects or civilians. Sometimes, the prompt wouldn’t appear unless I walked away and came back with my weapon in a ready stance rather than leaning, which broke the immersion flow a little. Hopefully, these small but impactful issues are addressed in a day-one update to polish the experience. 

The sound design in Ready or Not is immersive and well-executed, adding a strong layer of tension to every mission. From the distant echoes of gunfire to the sharp crack of a breaching charge, the audio creates a gritty and realistic atmosphere that keeps you on edge. That being said, there were a couple of areas that could use an overall improvement, like knife-wielding suspects needing an immediate audio rework.

They can charge up behind you silently, and by the time you hear them (if at all), you’re already on the ground after two quick swipes. I get that it could happen in a real-world situation, but some kind of distinct movement or audio cue would make these encounters a little fairer and give you time to put a couple of rounds centre-mass.

Another minor gripe is how vocal cuffed suspects remain. It would be nice if, once restrained, they’d quiet down and sit still so you’re not doubling back through rooms trying to figure out where the person you’ve missed is. That being said, in real life, cuffed suspects probably wouldn’t just sit there silently, so while it adds realism, it also introduces unnecessary second-guessing during missions. 

Visually, Ready or Not delivers the gritty and atmospheric experience that suits the tactical, high-stakes nature of the game. The lighting, shadows and environmental details do a great job of building tension and realism throughout each mission. The attention to detail here was spot on, but I would have liked to see a little more detail put into the character models.  Some of them look less detailed than the environments around them, and it makes you scratch your head, wondering if maybe it was an oversight. 

We kept running into an issue with our knife-wielding friends as well. If we did get the jump on them before they could stealthily take us out, the knife would sometimes vanish from existence. Not only does this break a layer of immersion in the game, but it also impacts the mission scoring and objectives. Whilst the overall graphical presentation is impressive, small issues like this do bring down the polish and could benefit from an early patch. 

Ready or Not will make a strong debut on Xbox Series X with some fine-tuning and polishing. It delivers a tense, tactical shooter that doesn’t shy away from realism and consequences. At its core, the gameplay loop is gripping, especially when playing with a coordinated squad, and the atmospheric visuals, along with the immersive sound design, create a constant sense of unease that suits the game’s tone.

That said, there’s a few issues, like the unreliable command wheel, occasional bugs with suspect interactions, and disappearing objects, and these hold it back from reaching its full potential. If VOID Interactive can address them with a post-launch patch, this could become one of the best tactical shooters available on consoles, but for now, it’s a solid experience. 

Written by: Hayden Nelson